296 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in every other century, the warfare was, in general, between religion 

 and heresy — not science; between science and pseudo-science — not re- 

 ligion. The distinction is fundamental. It arises from the very con- 

 stitution of man and the world he lives in. 



From the time when primitive man first learned to light a fire until 

 the present instant, there has been an increasing struggle between man 

 and external nature; between man and the' immaterial ignorances of 

 his mind, also. Little by little, by slow steps, external and material 

 nature has been subdued or circumvented in man's pursuit of comfort. 

 Security and leisure, with their by-products, are the mile-stones along 

 the tortuous path. Little by little the ignorances, anxieties and fears 

 of man's spirit have been driven out, or, it may be, circumvented (one 

 set of disquieting illusions sometimes being replaced by another) in 

 his pursuit of spiritual happiness. Even material comfort has not yet 

 been attained for society at large — witness the housing of the poor, and 

 the death rate of young children — though we are far on the road 

 towards it. 



Veritable progress has been made on the road to spiritual happi- 

 ness also. The spiritual welfare of a man is bound up in his beliefs 

 — in his religion. To attack and unsettle the beliefs of any age is 

 to threaten its happiness in a vital spot and such attacks are always 

 vigorously repelled. A blow directed against ideals sincerely held 

 hurts ; and is resented. That they are ignorantly held does not lighten 

 the blow. We have, to-day, partially — and only partially — learned 

 the lesson that if we would not stagnate in error we must welcome 

 criticism. We have learned that a patient tolerance of criticism is 

 one condition of progress. 



The veritable conflict of the past has been between enlightenment 

 and ignorance; between true religion (the residue left after countless 

 onslaughts of heresy) and false; between true science (again, a 

 residue) and pretended. The issue has been along the road that we 

 call progress — the residue of insight and acquirement left to us after 

 the experience of the ages. We have at last learned that even our 

 divagations from the straight path are not all in vain; that our teach- 

 ing comes through our errors. Men of genius commit their errors 

 but once ; they become our leaders because they learn more quickly ; our 

 own errors are countless, are ceaselessly committed, and it may be, in 

 time, corrected. All that we have acquired has come direct to us from 

 such leaders; all that the mass of men have learned is to glean the 

 fragments the leaders let fall, and to have a patient, or it may be 

 frivolous, tolerance of novel ideas and of suggested change. Leaders 

 who have escaped martyrdom of one sort or another we may account 

 unusually fortunate, or exceptionally adroit. 



Looking backwards, then, over the centuries we see perpetual con- 

 flict with ignorance, perpetual struggle in both the physical and the 



